02 February 2004 17:53
Flotation of nuclear industry will not require new safeguards, says ministry
St Petersburg, 2 February: Flotation of enterprises in the atomic sector which have areas which pose nuclear or
radiation hazards "will not require any fundamental change in the system of ensuring safety at such
installations", believes Aleksandr Agapov, the head of the Russian Atomic Energy Ministry's department of
safety, emergency situations and ecology.
All necessary procedures for licensing, certification and systems control applicable to a share-issue enterprise have
been developed since 1995, he told journalists at a major international youth conference entitled "Polar Lights -
2004". The forum, which is being attended by over 100 scientists, students and young specialists in the nuclear
sector from Russia, Ukraine, Kazakhstan, France and Sweden, opened today at the ministry's state regional
educational centre in St Petersburg. "Over the last nine years Russia has created highly effective infrastructure
for ensuring and absolutely guaranteeing safety in the context of a joint-stock company," Agapov explained. This is
persuasively demonstrated by the stable and accident-free work of enterprises which have been amalgamated in the market
holding Tvel, which has set a pioneering example to the sector. By 2008 strategically important enterprises will become
publicly funded organizations. It is planned to float off the rest, leaving the state with 100 per cent of the
shares.
[ITAR-TASS news agency] |
RUSSIA IN FACTS
